Inside Consumer Reports Test Labs: Blendtec Total Blender can handle an iPad, but can it make a good smoothie?

Consumer Reports News: April 13, 2010 12:49 PM

The Blendtec Total Blender pulverizes an iPad.

The ballyhooed iPad has its drawbacks—it can't multitask and lacks a camera, for instance—but we haven't heard of any disgruntled early adopters obliterating one of these devices like this guy does in this YouTube video.

The destruction of a brand-new $500 piece of equipment isn't an anti-Apple statement. Rather it's intended to prove the toughness of Blendtec Total Blenders. It's part of the schtick behind the Will It Blend? video series, in which Blendtec founder Tom Dickson pulverizes all manner of objects—golf balls, glow sticks, marbles, a can of EZ Cheese, and an iPhone.

We're testing the $400 Blendtec Total Blender TB-611-20 for our June 2010 review of blenders. How does it do at piña coladas, fruit smoothies, and other blender jobs more conventional than mauling an iPad? The Blendtec Total Blender TB-621-20 has excelled at crushing ice but has been only so-so at icy drinks and smoothies, jobs that require more than just raw power to render the right consistency. This Blendtec Total Blender is also among the noisier models being reviewed.

—Daniel DiClerico

Essential information: Check out our free buyer's guide to blenders and use our blender ratings (available to subscribers) to find the best model for your needs.

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Inside Consumer Reports Test Labs: Blendtec Total Blender can handle an iPad, but can it make a good smoothie?

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